Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/wincome-group/)
A ballot initiative to require Anaheim Resort-area businesses receiving city subsidies to pay workers a minimum $18 an hour by 2022 has met a signature requirement to qualify for the November general election ballot.
Local worker unions are clashing over a ballot initiative in Anaheim that would raise wages to $18 an hour for employees of companies that receive city subsidies, a measure aimed at three luxury hotel projects that received over $500 million in tax rebates in 2016.
But even if voters passed the two referendums, which oppose the building of luxury hotels with large tax subsidies, they would not stop the developer from going ahead with the projects or receiving city tax breaks, city officials say.
UNITE-HERE, which represents Anaheim Resort district employees, is collecting signatures to put two luxury hotel development deals before voters in November, after failed attempts to engage the projects’ developer on a labor deal.
Proponents of Anaheim’s $550-million subsidy program for luxury hotels say it is a win-win-win for businesses, labor and city residents. But some industry experts question whether this rosy picture will pan out.
In front of a packed house of both subsidy supporters and detractors, council members voted Tuesday to give Disneyland and another four-diamond hotel developer bed-tax rebates that could total more than $500 million for three hotel projects.
Council members Tuesday will consider requests for tax rebates worth a half a billion in new tax dollars from the developers of three luxury hotel projects, including a proposal from Disneyland for the largest subsidy in the city’s history.